Online Blackjack

Updated: 17 August 2026 · reviewed by the Best Eire Casinos editorial team

When it comes to games with cards played in casinos around the globe, blackjack is by far the most popular in the fairly large group. Blackjack owns a lot of its popularity to the fact it is one of rare games where players can learn and improve to better their skills and significantly lower the casino edge.

On the other hand, blackjack is also an easy game to learn and play as far as the rules are concerned, so it attracts casual players with no experience as well. The game owes a lot of its claim to the fame to many books and movies about famous card counters and card counting teams who took casinos to the cleaners back in the day.

These days most online casinos have a live casino where you can play live dealer Blackjack. We’ve listed the top online casinos that offer live dealer Blackjack below.

Blackjack Rules

Irish players enjoy various online casino games, each of them with their own special tweaks to the rules. However, all blackjack variants follow unique core principles and if you know these, you’re prepared to enjoy pretty much any blackjack game online. Many players find this aspect quite thrilling.

The objective of blackjack seems fairly simple. The participant needs to form a hand totaling 21 or less and win against the dealer’s total. Picture cards get counted as 10, Aces counted as 11 or 1, and other cards retain their face values.

Typically, six to eight individuals sit at a live blackjack table, while virtual online tables often suggest no limit because participants play on their own. When the game starts, the dealer hands each player one card face up and places one card for themselves, but facing down. Then, every player is given another card and the dealer also takes another card, but this occasion face up, for everyone to observe. This creates a more exciting atmosphere.

After the first cards are received, the dealer offers every player an option to either „hit,“ i.e. take one more card, or stand, keeping their total and not taking additional cards. The exception is whenever the player is dealt an Ace and some card valued at 10, because at that point they are dealt the blackjack and it immediately pays at 3 to 2. Participants may accept new cards for as long as their total stays under 21, but once they exceed 21, their hand is deemed bust and their bets are immediately lost.

Once all playing cards are distributed to the players, the dealer flips over their face-down card and proceeds to collect more if their total sits below 17. Once they get 17, they won’t draw any more cards. If the dealer crashes in the process of drawing cards (exceeds 21), all players with a lively hand win automatically. However, the totals are assessed and those with the superior total than the dealer win at 1 to 1 relative to their bets. This adds an element of excitement.

When a player and the dealer feature the same total, the hand is judged a push and the player retrieves their bet.

Special Blackjack Rules

Apart from these fundamentals, there are a couple of special rules players need to be aware of. The first such rule has to do with splitting cards. Once the player receives a pair as their first two cards, they are allowed to split the pair and effectively play two blackjack hands by putting in an additional bet.

Players are also allowed to double down on certain totals, depending on the particular variation. What this means is that, in most instances, players can double their bet if their total is 8, 9, 10, or 11 and ask for another card. However, they only get one card after doubling and can’t draw any more.

Basic Blackjack Strategy

We’ve already mentioned that blackjack is one of rare games where players’ decisions truly matter. Knowing how to play the game properly can seriously diminish the house edge and the set of rules on how to play correctly is known as basic blackjack strategy.

Aside from the general strategies of playing casino games – such as keeping in line with responsible gambling, not betting more than you can afford and budgeting – there are unique strategies for Blackjack. The entire strategy is quite extensive (although not that difficult to learn), so we’ll only cover some of the main principles in this article. According to basic strategy, you should:

• Always split Aces
• Never split 10s (or face cards)
• Always split 8s
• Never split 5s
• Always double on the 11 total
• Always double on the 10 total unless the dealer is showing an Ace or a Ten
• Always stand on 17 or better
• Always stand on 13 to 16 if the dealer is showing 2 – 6; otherwise hit
• Always hit on 8
• If the dealer is showing 3 – 6, double on a 9; otherwise just hit

There is more to know about blackjack strategy, but these items represent a nice summary of the whole thing and even if you just learn these by heart, you’ll be making very few mistakes at the tables.

Card Counting – Does it work for online Blackjack?

Card counting is the only surefire way to actually turn the tables on the house and actually make the game of blackjack profitable for the player. There are several card counting techniques, but all of them rely on the same basic principle of keeping track of big, middling, and small cards. As there are more big cards left in the blackjack shoe, the game becomes more favorable for the player.

How do you count cards?

Can you count cards in online Blackjack?

Sadly, card counting doesn’t work for online blackjack. At electronic tables, the virtual shoe is shuffled at the start of each hand, which means there is no point in keeping track of what cards were dealt. With live blackjack games online, a player could count cards, but shoes are usually cut very often, which means they never get deep enough for card counting to become effective.